Click here to learn more about monitoring, analysing and tracking twitter in real-time with Spectrum's
Tweet-tracker
To see the very latest results from Spectrum's Spin-tweet dashboard, click here.
Clegg Takes the Honours in First Debate of UK Party Leaders
Nick Clegg was the undoubted victor in the first ever debate of UK political party leaders, at least as far as the Twittering classes were concerned. The first chart below shows how Clegg, who started close to Gordon Brown in popularity immediately before the debate, overtook David Cameron at the very end to claim the honours. Cameron also performed well in the debate, according to Twitterers, while Brown's popularity wavered before growing a little during the hour immediately following it.
As to what people tweeted, here are just a few examples...
mdtauk: "What we learnt tonight: Clegg is a damn fine speaker, Cameron met a black man once and BROWN agrees with NICK"
yogi_blair (great user name, eh): "NICK Clegg the Barack Obama of UK politics"
Lyncherylede: "NICK Clegg suddenly the most powerful man in British Politics"
But what about the parties? As the chart below shows, the Lib-Dems took the honours here as well. Interestingly, the Tories' popularity halved during the debate while Labour's remained static. But if the quality of debate among the leaders wasn't great, how about the quality of some tweets...
daniel_oh: "I don't get how anyone can like David Cameron and the CONSERVATIVE party, what a bunch of blaaaah"
benbelassie: "I asked my 2yr old son if he'd vote for Labour CONSERVATIVE or Lib Dems, he said -'No, the Elephant Party' - out of the mouths of babes"
andypiper: "Disappointed that the leader of the LABOUR Party wasn't involved in the debate - where were you Mandelson?"
On a more serious note, this shows just how rapidly Twitter can reveal the views and opinions of the public without the need for (expensive) market research panels and the like. Imagine for a moment these charts and comments showing immediate responses to your next product launch, enabling you to see results within an hour of an announcement. That's quite a thought!
The Battle of the Chancellors
The consensus seems to be that the 'battle of the chancellors' in last evening's TV debate was something of a damp squib, with nobody able to land a killer punch. But what did the voters make of it? One way we can find out is to analyse Twitter, which offers by far the fastest response on public views and opinions of any social media. Of course, it could be argued that the sample is biased, which is true, but the Twittering classes are nothing if not influential so their views are very important. The data are taken from tweets during and since last night's television debate up to 3pm this afternoon.
The first chart shows the share of conversation for Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable among Twitterers, with each receiving a pretty similar share on 28%, 35% and 37%, respectively.
The next chart looks at the tonal sentiment of tweets for each politician. Perhaps surprisingly, Vince Cable achieved the lowest positive sentiment, with just 4.53%, although he also achieved the lowest negative sentiment making him the most popular on a net basis. George Osborne scored 5.95% positive tone against 4.82% for Alistair Darling while negative tone for Osborne was -5.45% compared to -5.81% for Darling. These scores make Osborne and Cable pretty much joint winners, with Darling trailing in third place.
Last but not least, what did Twitterers take from each politician in terms of policies and topics? The following chart shows that most associated Alistair Darling with debt while George Osborne scored most highly on the economy. What can we deduce from all this? The truth is that nobody came out particularly well nor especially badly. Osborne's initiative to stop additional NI contributions planned by Labour, at least for some of the electorate, clearly didn't set the house on fire while Darling's faux pas on death tax didn't kill him off.
Piers Morgan Interview Fails to Lift Brown on Twitter
As the chart immediately below shows, initial reaction on Twitter to Gordon Brown's interview with Piers Morgan was positive. Indeed, in the hours running up to the interview Brown's popularity was higher than David Cameron's, but this could not be sustained and he fell back rapidly around midnight.
Brown and Labour Fight Back on twitter Popularity - Summary to 17 January 2010
Gordon Brown has gained considerable ground on David Cameron in his weekly popularity on twitter. Brown's popularity increased by 1.29% over the past week (to 17 January 2010), while Cameron's fell by 0.88% and Nick Clegg's by 0.79%. Labour has also gained on the Tories, the former increasing popularity by 0.86% while the latter decreased by a similar 0.87%. The Lib-Dems fell by a very significant 2.94%.
These figures follow a dismal previous week for Labour when both the Tories and Lib-Dems made great gains following the botched Labour coup. They also reflect a growing upward trend for Gordon Brown whose popularity on twitter has now doubled since the end of December. Despite these encouraging weekly trends, however, Brown ended the week more than 2.5% down on Cameron, on just 1.19% popularity. It therefore remains to be seen whether Brown can sustain his twitter fight-back.
To see the very latest results from Spectrum's Spin-tweet dashboard, click here.
Tweet-tracker Reveals Hourly Insight into Failed Labour Coup
The failed Labour party coup of 6 January, 2010, led by Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt provides a simple but very effective example of how Spectrum's Tweet-tracker can be used to monitor, analyse and track twitter in real-time. Although this example refers to the political scene, exactly the same technique can be used to monitor, analyse and track any twitter coverage, from reaction to a product launch, new advertising campaign or sales promotion to a press announcement or unfolding crisis.
At 12:26 on 6 January, 2010, an email and text messages were sent from Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt to all Labour MPs, calling for a leadership vote as Gordon Brown was on his feet for the first Prime Minister's Questions of election year. Less than one hour later, at 13:00, Spectrum's Tweet-tracker was able to reveal the first mentions of the coup on twitter, which can be seen in the following chart along with a major spike in tweets for Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt.
But while tracking the attempted coup is of interest, the real concern for Gordon Brown and the Labour party was the impact on the Prime Minister's reputation; and, for the other party leaders, whether this would help them in the race for 10 Downing Street. The next chart reveals the impact on Gordon Brown's popularity on twitter, again in real time. It shows how the Prime Minister's popularity actually increased shortly after the plotters' emails and texts were revealed, peaking at 16:00 that afternoon. This was short-lived, however, as Brown's reputation plummeted towards the end of the afternoon before recovering slightly in tweets that evening. By then, however, the damage had been done and David Cameron's popularity can clearly be seen to grow towards the end of the day. But the person who benefited most from tweets on the attempted coup was Lib-Dem leader, Nick Clegg, whose popularity soared before dipping back in mid-afternoon.
This simple example demonstrates the benefits of using Tweet-tracker to capture the views and opinions of consumers, through twitter; and highlights how powerful insight can be gained into the impact of announcements and news as it occurs.
Cameron and Conservatives Increase Popularity on Twitter Following Failed Labour Coup
Spin-Tweet, Spectrum's real-time analysis of consumer tweets on Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, has revealed a 3.48% increase in popularity for the Tory leader on twitter for the week leading up to 9 January, 2010, while his party, the Conservatives, enjoyed a 4.8% rise over the same period. The Lib-Dems also gained by 4.58% while their leader, Nick Clegg, increased his popularity by 2.67%.
Gordon Brown's popularity increased slightly over the week but the big loser was the Labour party, whose popularity on twitter plummeted by 4.11%. This finding reflects a double blow for the plotters, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, with the person they wanted to remove still in office and the Labour party itself taking a hammering as a result of the botched coup.
The most popular issue in twitter related to the party leaders over the week was the NHS, with 29.8% share of voice (SOV), followed by the forthcoming General Election (18.2% SOV) and then the economy (16.6% SOV). Other issues that featured include terrorism (13.0% of tweets), airport security (8.9% of tweets) and extremism (3.8% of tweets), all following discussions over new body scanners to be introduced at UK airports, while the freezing temperatures resulted in 4.0% of tweets discussing UK energy supplies. Another political issue that continues to attract twitter is MPs' expenses, which was covered in 13.2% of tweets.
To see the very latest results from Spectrum's Spin-tweet dashboard, click here.
